Child Safety Bill Could Cripple Anime Industry

John Funk

U.N. Owen Was Him?
Dec 20, 2005
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Child Safety Bill Could Cripple Anime Industry



It's all the stranger (and more worrisome for the industry) that this bill specifically exempts things like photography, live-action film and TV, and novels. In other words, while a live-action production of Nabokov's Lolita would theoretically be fine under the law, an animated adaptation would be able to be classified as pornography.

What makes this even stranger is that in Japan as in the US, the government already regulates hardcore pornography to keep it out of the hands of youths. In fact, this bill has absolutely nothing to do with materials that are already classified as adult works. The only things affected by these provisions would be anime, manga and games depicting these issues, but not in a manner sexually explicit enough to be classified as porn.

In other words, this bill wouldn't cover the infamous RapeLay, but could potentially cover things like the groundbreaking Neon Genesis Evangelion (two words: hospital scene) or even "magical girl" shows that imply nudity on underage characters during transformation sequences. One could hardly classify long-running action manga Berserk as hentai, but under this bill the sexual scenes would make it vulnerable to reclassification - and in Japan as in the West, many retailers will opt not to stock adult material entirely. It could also hamstring entire genres that deal with same-sex romance (and given statements by Tokyo governor Ishihara calling gays and lesbians "deficient," [http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2010/12/07/the-governor-strikes-again-gays-deficient-and-bill-opponents-need-christian-morals/] this may be intended).

While Bill 156 will only affect the Tokyo area, given that the vast majority of anime and manga makers are located in the area around Tokyo, it could still have a potentially critical effect on the industry.

Naturally, the bill has faced harsh opposition everywhere outside of the Tokyo government. The Tokyo Bar Association and the Japan PEN Club have both opposed the bill, with the former criticizing it for unclear terminology and its use of the term "exaggerated" (since manga and anime are by their nature exaggerated), and the latter claiming that the bill could "warp the freedoms of speech and expression."

The strongest opposition, however, comes from manga and anime publishers themselves (understandably). The major publishers in the "Big 10" including media giant boycott the Tokyo Anime Fair [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kadokawa_Shoten] (link NSFW), despite Governor Ishihara's claims that the event would "prove a place where the Japan can proudly showcase the charms of its animation industry to the world." Meanwhile, Shueisha, publisher of Shonen Jump - the serial magazine containing famous titles like Bleach and Naruto - affirmed its support for its writers and artists, and urged them to create works that would "blow [the legislature] away."

Japanese Prime Minster Naoto Kan in a blog post [http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/bill-156-locked-to-go-prime-minister-expresses-concern-as-final-vote-comes-on-wednesday/]. While the promotion of healthy development in the youth was important, wrote Kan, it was also important that "Japanese animation [was] broadcast to a global audience."

This is way too huge an issue to comprehensively cover in one news post - further reading is recommended at places like Dan Kanemitsu [http://www.japanator.com/fffuuu-tokyo-s-anti-loli-bill-passes-in-commitee-17722.phtml&mainnav=&track] - but one thing is certain: Fans of anime and manga may find the industry irrevocably changed as a result of this bill.

Or, the companies could just pack up and move to Osaka. That could happen, too.

Update: Bill 156 has officially passed [http://www.japanator.com/fffuuu-part-2-tokyo-anti-loli-bill-passes-for-real-17761.phtml]. Preliminary self-regulation will begin on April 1 2011, with the law going into effect on July 1.

(Source: Dan Kanemitsu [http://dankanemitsu.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/crunch-time-three-days-until-bill-156s-fate-is-determined/])

(Supplemental Information: AnimeNewsNetwork [http://www.japanator.com/fffuuu-tokyo-s-anti-loli-bill-passes-in-commitee-17722.phtml&mainnav=&track])

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RUINER ACTUAL

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Fuck child safety. The last thing this world should be concerned with is the safety of its children. Especially in regards towards what they see in the media. That's the parents problem.
 

John Funk

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Dec 20, 2005
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Daystar Clarion said:
I fucking called it! If Americans hate anything more than socialism, it's children experiencing great stories if they so much as have any kind of flesh in them. They're breasts, not the damnation of your children's innocence.
You realize that Tokyo is not actually in the United States, yes?
 
Dec 14, 2009
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John Funk said:
Daystar Clarion said:
I fucking called it! If Americans hate anything more than socialism, it's children experiencing great stories if they so much as have any kind of flesh in them. They're breasts, not the damnation of your children's innocence.
You realize that Tokyo is not actually in the United States, yes?
Sorry, I believe I misread. Apologies.
 

emeraldrafael

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RUINER ACTUAL said:
Fuck child safety. Natural Selection. The kid who swallows too many quarters doesn't get to make more quarter-swallowing retards.
^
This, but iwth more elegance.

Its hard to do something like this, because for the most part you have the generational gap. It used to be that things today are more violent then they were for our parents. yes, that is true, you cant really argue against it. But now you're doing a similar motion in the opposite direction. This is like saying that you shouldnt have pokemon games because pokemon use fire attacks, whihch cause burns. Or how picking up an item on the ground you find is considered stealing. Its for a long time be said pokemon is nothing but a tool for children to use to teach them how to fight each other with their pets (think dog fighting).

Besides, you have a company that was built on these things. ANime always pushed the boundries because it was fictional. If you wnat to do this, you have to ban books detail war in school, or the news where it shows people dying or dead. Kids should know from their parents teachings right and wrong. Not from a bill that will cripple one of Japan's chief exports. I honeslty dont see them keeping htis when tehy see the way that sales and profit from anime being "toned down" or all together stopped disappear.
 

FredTheUndead

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Also of note is Ishihara is just kind of an all around bastard in general:
- Claims Rape of Nanking never happened
- Said in a interview for a women's magazine "old women who live after they have lost their reproductive function are useless and are committing a sin"
- Believes that a Korea under Japanese rule would be justified
 

The Wykydtron

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Sep 23, 2010
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WTF?! Goddammit censorship... Ah well lets see how many ways the anime industry finds around this. I'm guessing there's a few

Also don't you think "cripple" is a bit strong a term? They'll find a way around it, its hardly gonna destroy anime and manga forever
 

Cliff_m85

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John Funk said:
Daystar Clarion said:
I fucking called it! If Americans hate anything more than socialism, it's children experiencing great stories if they so much as have any kind of flesh in them. They're breasts, not the damnation of your children's innocence.
You realize that Tokyo is not actually in the United States, yes?
Well....not yet. *shifty eyes*
 

FredTheUndead

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The Wykydtron said:
WTF?! Goddammit censorship... Ah well lets see how many ways the anime industry finds around this. I'm guessing there's a few

Also don't you think "cripple" is a bit strong a term? They'll find a way around it, its hardly gonna destroy anime and manga forever
More likely it'll be stomped flat by public outcry and cash changing hands. A bill that potentially bans most Miyazaki movies, Dragonball, One Piece, Evangelion, and Keroro Gunso, among many OTHER series that not just nerds, but much of the Japanese public devours makes this roughly the same as if the American government tried to ban Star Wars. Shit just isn't going to work.
 

Casual Shinji

Should've gone before we left.
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Jul 18, 2009
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I haven't been the biggest anime fan as of late, but if this bill passes, I can't help but feel like a small part of me will die.

Plus, the fact that Berserk is one of the greatest comics ever made, and having this bill get in the way of its artistic freedom aswell as labeling it as common porn is a fucking crime against humanity.
 

yanipheonu

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I'm not a big a fan of the government pulling shit like this, especially when it isn't based in fact. Japan has really low rate for rape and pedophiles, clearly stuff like anime or games are not making things a problem. The government just wants to force people to only watch and play what they want, just because they feel they don't like it, not based on fact, at the expense of those involved in the industry.
 

The Random One

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May 29, 2008
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Wow, this is horrible. Even more so because Japan doesn't have the love of free speech that the US has. They're a much more conservative country (and that's saying something).

Although I guess that unless similar things sprout up elsewhere in the country manga makers will just move to Osaka as the newspost implied. Tokyo will just be kissing goodbye to taxes on one of its worldwide industries.

Here's hoping it comes to nothing though. I know nothing of how Japanese politics go so I can only hope.
 

ChromeAlchemist

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Aug 21, 2008
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Japan keeps taking one step forward and two steps back. They allow lolicon material to be sold, but censor out genitals in live action pornography.

I for one don't think it will pass though, it's too major a change that will affect two of their largest industries.
FredTheUndead said:
Also of note is Ishihara is just kind of an all around bastard in general:
- Claims Rape of Nanking never happened
- Said in a interview for a women's magazine "old women who live after they have lost their reproductive function are useless and are committing a sin"
- Believes that a Korea under Japanese rule would be justified
That second one can't be true, I'm not even going to look it up...
 
Apr 28, 2008
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It'll be interesting to see how this'll have an affect on Japan's economy. Anime/Manga/games are pretty large pieces of that, and if they essentially cripple them, they're fucked. Japan's economy isn't exactly doing so well right now, so this'll really screw it over.

This thing actually started out as an anti-loli bill. And has now mutated into this... thing. Just ridiculous. I guess they're going by the "anything that remotely resembles it is as bad as it."

Also, fuck that governor. People like him seriously piss me off.
 

emeraldrafael

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FredTheUndead said:
Also of note is Ishihara is just kind of an all around bastard in general:
- Claims Rape of Nanking never happened
- Said in a interview for a women's magazine "old women who live after they have lost their reproductive function are useless and are committing a sin"
- Believes that a Korea under Japanese rule would be justified
Which Korea? Cause the North could use a small tuning up and mellowing out, buti think any country would be good to run it.
 

Steve the Pocket

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This wins my vote for "most shocking news of the week". If you told me someone was trying to brand non-pornographic anime as pornography and made me guess where, I'd probably name every country in the world before I finally guessed Japan. I mean, that's like if America banned........... OK, what are we known for in other countries besides being fat?